Percussion detonating composition



Patented Oct. 2, 1934 PATNT OFFIQE PERCUSSION DETONATING COMPOSITION Andr Blane, Salaise-sur-Sanne, France No Drawing. Application November 6,

Serial No. 573,524. In France November 7,

1 Claim.

The invention relates to a safe detonating plaything designed to be employed several times, while the playthings made up with the so-called detonating peas can only be employed once, be-

! cause the whole detonating substance burns at once.

It is also known that, repeated detonations can be obtained by throwing two spherical bodies against each other, of which one has been coated with potassium chlorate and the other with red phosphorus.

The present invention is based upon the use of phosphorus sesquisulphide (P483) as detonator, with an oxidizing substance such as potassium chlorate, in a composition which is coated over the same spherical body.

By throwing such a spherical body against a hard surface, a detonation is obtained. Instead of phosphorus sesquisulphide, one may use red 20 phosphorus, but the detonation is essentially weaker.

An example of the composition of coating for a spherical body according to my invention is as follows:

l5 Grains Phosphorus sesquisulphide 80 Arabic gum 115 Magnesium carbonate Calcium carbonate 5 Potassium chlorate 80 Iron sesqui oxide (red ochre) This mixture is moistened with just enough water to obtain a paste, which is coated on a hard body, such as a stone for example. It is advisable to protect the coated stone with a jacket such as paper, paste board, plaster and the like. Such a stone is ready for use and can be thrown repeatedly a number of times against a hard surface to produce repeated detonations.

m From the foregoing it will be understood that the present invention is based upon the well known combustible properties of phosphorus sesquisulfide (P4S3) under the action of an oxidizing substance, such as potassium chlorate in the presence of an adhesive substance (arabic gum) a composition to which neutralizing and retarding bodies are added in predetermined proportions:

Magnesium carbonate (CO3Mg) Calcium carbonate (COzCa) Red ochre (F6203);

substances which under suitable proportions give to the above mentioned composition such a stability that the combustion of the phosphorus sesquisulfide under the action of the potassium chlorate takes place only at the point of contact when the coated body is thrown against a, hard surface. And this may be done more than forty times as the paste formed by the composition firmly adheres to the pebble or other hard body. Therefore I not only substitute phosphorus sesquisulfide for yellow phosphorus heretofore employed, but also add neutralizing bodies to the composition heretofore known, throwing the 010- jects prepared in this manner violently against a hard and dry surface, as many detonations are obtained as the throwing is repeated (more than forty times).

This mixture may be employed on a flat object or in serpentine rolled paper or pasteboard, where it is laid in the form of globules.

Among various playthings which are manufactured with the above described detonating mixture, are exploding pebbles, or detonating peas made out of a hard core (stone, metal or artificial body) and then coated with said paste, and afterward covered with a protecting paper.

It is a, main point of the process that the coating be as uniform as possible on the whole surface of the pebble or other body, to get after drying, a great number of successive detonations, as is desired. I

Such uniform coating is obtained as follows:

The mixture made of phosphorus sesquisulfide, gum arabic, magnesium carbonate, potassium chlorate, ochre and calcium carbonate, moistened with water, is poured into a clean barrel. Pebbles are added, abouta thousand in number, and the barrel is closed and rotated by a handle crank till the surface of the pebbles is uniformly and regularly coated with the paste.

The pebbles are then poured out of the barrel, and wrapped in small paper jackets, to prevent them from sticking together. They are then spread on grating hurdles and dried.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

A percussion detonating composition consisting of phosphorus sesquisulfide 30 grams, gum arabic 115 grams, magnesium carbonate 20 grams, calcium carbonate 5 grams, potassium chlorate 80 grams, iron sesquioxide (red ochre) 40 grams.

ANDRE BLANC. 

